Australian Navy Frigate arrives in Japan for bilateral and trilateral maritime exercises

Aus­tralian Navy Frigate arrives in Japan for bilat­er­al and tri­lat­er­al mar­itime exer­cis­es The ANZAC-class Guid­ed Mis­sile Frigate, HMAS Bal­larat, arrived in Japan yes­ter­day on the final stage of its North East Asian deploy­ment after com­plet­ing a suc­cess­ful series of exer­cis­es with the mar­itime forces of both Chi­na and Korea.

After a short port vis­it to the city of Kure, HMAS Bal­larat will par­tic­i­pate in the Australian–Japanese bilat­er­al Exer­cise Nichi Gou Tri­dent 2012 from 4–6 June 2012.

Bal­larat will be joined by a Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force AP3‑C Ori­on mar­itime patrol air­craft and the Japan­ese Guid­ed Mis­sile Destroy­er, JS Shi­makaze from the Japan­ese Mar­itime Self Defence Force (JMSDF). A JMSDF sub­ma­rine will also par­tic­i­pate in this year’s exer­cise for the first time, demon­strat­ing the strong com­mit­ment of both coun­tries towards improv­ing mar­itime secu­ri­ty in the region.

The com­bined mar­itime exer­cise will take place in waters south­east of Japan’s Kyushu Island. The exer­cise aims to fur­ther devel­op inter­op­er­abil­i­ty in all facets of naval oper­a­tions com­mon to both navies, with par­tic­u­lar focus on com­plex Under Sea War­fare, Mar­itime Inter­dic­tion Oper­a­tions and oth­er core mariner skills activ­i­ties.

On com­ple­tion of the bilat­er­al exer­cise, the Aus­tralian and Japan­ese forces will then be joined by the Unit­ed States Navy (USN) for the tri­lat­er­al exer­cise, Pacif­ic Bond 2012 where the USN will con­tribute air­craft, ships and a sub­ma­rine. This exer­cise will again focus on Under Sea War­fare and seek to fur­ther improve inter­op­er­abil­i­ty between all the three navies with­in the region.